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Yes, I know, it’s been my general belief that the Tea Crustaceans are largely a rag-tag motley crew of uninformed, uneducated, old, white men who are angry at not being able to retire to a tropical island with the requisite trophy wife half his age, and who choose, are directed to blame all that on government, Negroes, Muslims, and various illegals of the brown complexion.

They want “government out of their lives and pocketbooks” all the while demanding that government keep it’s hands off their medicare, but incongruity aside, peering up women’s lady parts to determine the state of her pregnancy and then explaining in patient and slow detail what is going on up there that she is of course quite incapable (because of her sex) to understand fully and competently.

That they are led around by the nose by the likes of very important and wealthy Republicans, aka Koch brothers, who have a most different agenda, is well-known too. Since they have gone to some lengths to allow the lemmings to believe it was all their idea, aided and abetted by Foxy Noise, they have successfully pushed their real agenda of low taxes, no regulation, all the while allowing the mob to rant about all manner of things social that the powers that be care nothing about by and large. They are also allowed to rant long and hard on any “safety net” program that they themselves don’t partake in, i.e. NOT social security and not medicare, all the while not having a clue that in fact their handlers do verily intend to destroy those too once they are in the ascendency.

This has all been my general belief.

Until I read this. Michael Lind’s contention is that the Tea Party is anything but “new” but really just the latest manifestation of a really old Right. He argues that the true base of the fringe group is decidedly Southern and upscale. Once these white town leaders had driven the Reconstructionists out of the South, they put in play a variety mechanisms that gave them control such as segregation, disenfranchisement, bloc voting, and federally the filibuster, to maintain control of local affairs. This state of affairs was upset by the civil rights movement of the 60’s driving a lot of white working class into the arms of the Republicans. They managed because of this, to gain control of the federal government and basically through 2008, had their way.

With the growing Latino presence, and Blacks now firmly in the Democratic camp, they are looking at a very different demographic in the future. Since they don’t really want Latinos and African-Americans in their wheelhouse, the best solution for them is to dismantle as best they can, the federal government in the hopes of regaining/retaining local control. Their new methodology is to use the filibuster to prevent any more “liberal” and federal control, disenfranchisement of as many Democrats as possible, and the continuing call to privatize federal programs to obtain local control over them once again.

Lind argues that all this is rational and goal-oriented.

This argument is essentially echoed by Zack Beauchamp at Think Progress. He strikes the epicenter of the shift closer to the New Deal, but essentially ends at the same place, these people have always been around in one guise or another and their aim is to maintain power and control over their region and over their lives without federal (read non-white at this point) interference.

Beauchamp takes us on a long and rich history ride to make his point, and though long, this article is a really lesson to us all.

It should be noted that the Democratic budget bill was scrapped and the House (sequestration level budget) was accepted precisely because Boehner, said that if the Democrats did so, he could pass a clean bill. The minute Democrats acceded to that, the goal post was moved and we got into the “defund Obamacare too” and all that has followed. So the negotiations have gone on and it was the GOP who refused up until the “crisis” occurred to meet and discuss differences. More than 20 times Republicans refused to attend a conference between the House and Senate bills to reconcile differences.

This is where we are, and this is how we got there I believe. There are lots of opinions out there as to what comes next. Some say that Boehner has promised that he will put a clean bill on the floor at the last minute. Some say he was very pissed when the media outed this position, and this caused him to backtrack to his hardline position of demanding a concession of some sort. Some say he will still put the bill on the floor at the last minute. Others think he is so in love with his gavel that he will see the country go down before giving it up.

Like this:

Ya just knew it would come down to this. Although of course, there just might be a last-minute reprieve that postpones things another few days or weeks.

When you deal with unstable and basically ignorant people, there is little hope of getting through with logic or common sense.

And the TeaBirchers are certainly unstable and certainly ignorant. It’s hard to understand what they are for or against, unless it starts with the letter O, they are against all things O. Once you cross that line, any semblance to a recognizable landscape vanishes and you might as well try to remain upright walking through the fun house.

Many a pundit has concluded that the TeaBirchers are not people who want to govern but rather those who wish to destroy government in general. That’s partially true.

These pundits claim that the TeaBirchers were sent to Washington to say NO to everything that has to do with spending money. Reduce government to a size that can be drowned in a bathtub they cry, ala Norquist. Yet, if you ask them (the average idiot who wears the funny tri-corner hat at the rallies) if he or she is ready to dump social security or medicare, well, they are pretty much likely to carry these signs:

As I said, these folks are severely lacking in basic knowledge about that of what they speak.

Which always brings us to race, and well, yes, that is a huge part of what’s going on here, but not all.

The thing is most TeaBirchers aren’t against social security and Medicare. They like those things. They feel they should have those things for themselves. But they are very suspicious that nice upstanding, hardworking, bible-clutching, (read WHITE) folks like themselves are but a small number of the people who are getting this “earned benefit”.

It’s all those “other” people who don’t deserve these benefits that cause the trouble. Why, these little programs would be just fine (and hugely smaller) if only the “right” people got the benefits.

Now, of course that is not the way Calgary Ted or Randy actually see things. They are serious elitists, draped in the American flag, and passionately proclaiming that “real Americans” don’t want or need government handouts of any sort. Get old? Your family is responsible for that, and heck, the poor house is still a viable option for those who refuse to work until they drop dead. Work keeps you young! Be just poor? Company towns will make sure there is a roof over your head (of sorts) a few square feet of personal space and all the potatoes and fat back you can eat. Keeps you healthy enough to work on the killing floor of the slaughterhouse no?

Course Ted and Randy keep that “real” agenda on the QT, since the rabble may be dumb, but probably not that dumb.

There are, shockingly, no hordes poised at the gates threatening to storm the Bastille. But you wouldn’t know that to hear Ted or Michele, or any of the rest of the utterly crazy head spinners who grab every microphone within a ten yard radius to tell us that “all the American people know that Obamacare is a disaster, and 30 million people who have healthcare are losing it”, and the death panels are mere seconds from having their first hearing to DENY YOU your dialysis treatment.

You’d really think that there should be crowds picketing the White House no?

Did somebody forget that Obama beat the Romney “we hate Obamacare” machine by a record 51%, a higher margin than any posted since DD Eisenhower? Higher than even Ronnie “the now God” Reagan? Did somebody forget that the Democrats WON seats in the Senate and increased their number while Republicans LOST seats in the 2012 election? Did somebody forget that with having a near strangle hold on almost all of their gerrymandered seats in the House, they managed to lose a net 8 seats to Democrats and lost the popular vote by a 1.4 MILLION vote margin?

Does that suggest that people on average are pretty okay with the Affordable Healthcare Act?

Does the fact that out of the numbers who are “against” Obamacare, fully 30% are against it because it doesn’t go far enough, “i.e., single-payer system). And that those “against” it go down when you use the words Affordable healthcare Act instead of Obamacare?

Does the fact that by a strong majority people don’t think it’s appropriate to defund an existing law or threaten a government shutdown to do what you can’t do at the ballot box, matter?

Funny, when the GOP talking pointers tell me how much “all Americans” know Obamacare is a disaster, they never mention these points.

Funny, they also (with straight faces to a fault) tell me that the President and Harry Reid are unwilling to negotiate. I mean let’s get past the chutzpah of these folks who refuse on principle to compromise on ANYTHING, because it’s a dirty word. First get past that. Then riddle me this brain of a protozoan:

The AHA was passed by both houses of Congress by MAJORITIES, duly signed into law by the PRESIDENT, and found CONSTITUTIONAL by a Court that nobody considers liberal under the most strained definition.

The GOP cannot manage to either win the Presidency, nor the Senate, nor convince Democrats (some of which surely must care about the well-being of the American public before the well-being of their party) to pass in both houses a repeal nor convince the President that he should go along with them.

Failing that, they have said, okay, a minority of us within 1/2 of 1/3 of the government, are willing to burn the place down if we don’t get our way, having figured out no other means to get our way–LIKE VOTES BY THE PUBLIC ELECTING THEM TO CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT. It’s akin to a robber putting a gun to your head and saying, “your money or your life, and if you refuse to give me your money, well don’t blame me that you are dead.”

They think I’m so stupid that I will blame the hostage rather than the hostage taker.

I am not going to blame the hostage.

Nobody is going to blame the hostage.

Except fellow travelers of the hostage takers. And you had then at hello.

The question left is: JOHN BOEHNER DO YOU HAVE PAIR? EVEN A STRAP ON SET WILL DO AT THIS POINT. You can give ‘em back if it’s too heavy a carry after this is over. ONCE AND FOR DAMN ALL.

Like this:

Have you been keeping up on CPAC, the GOP answer to absolutely nothing? It’s been a “business as usual” kinda thing so far. Trump gets up there and trashes Jindal, and babbles about himself and how great he is. Rick Perry says they have to reach out to Latinos and is booed. Rubio says just because he supports traditional marriage doesn’t make him a bigot. (yeah actually it does).

My favorite was a clip from a “workshop” wherein a younger type white dude talked about being proud of his “demographic” (code for white supremacist) and claiming that the federal government was disenfranchising same, and that he thought his “demographic” had a great culture to be preserved.

When the moderator who was black, noted that Frederick Douglass sent a letter to his “owner” many years after he had escaped, and forgave him, the young man piped up and said, “for what? For receiving food and a home?” This was met with a couple audible gasps, but far too much applause. He was heard to utter under his breath, “we just need to go back to segregation.”

Yes, that’s the state of the GOP.

You have all heard the stories in the press. As the President and rational folks in the Democratic Party responded to the upswell of opinion that favored background checks for gun buyers and at least some restrictions on the types of guns available and large capacity clips, the gun stores have been doing a booming business.

It is now an undeniable fact that a significant majority of our fellow citizens are building up arsenals for the coming Armageddon that they are sure is on the way.

Given that these people are mentally unstable and delusional, it should come as no surprise that they actually think they can fend off the American military with their pretend assault weapons. They are so effectual against tanks and drones. What they do is pose a significant danger to the poor neighbors who unbeknownst, live near them.

No doubt you noted that the Dow has hit an all-time high. That is certainly cause for much celebration.

Business feels good about itself apparently. Business is good. During the recession they spent their money on ways to improve productivity with a smaller work force.

They were successful.

They aren’t hiring much because they don’t have to.

The fools believed that they were “job creators.”

They are profit creators dummy. Always were. The last thing they want to do is hire workers. Workers are much more expensive to keep than a robot riveter.

Yet the Right continues the mantra, and the kool-aid drinkers keep repeating it.

Need I say more?

The mantra for this one is that it depresses employment because business lays off workers rather than pay them a living wage.

Yeah, business is usually known for cutting of its nose to spite its face. I can just hear them now.

“Sorry Ms Customer, you will have to wait an extra 45 minutes for service. If you don’t like it leave. I’m not going to hire another worker at $10 an hour. So take your $150 dress and rehang it. I have principles you know.”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they will do.

Actual studies show they do lay off workers, for a hot minute, and then hire them back when, you know, they have more customers than their current work force can handle.

And guess what? That happens across the country. And guess what? All that extra cash earned by workers? It’s SPENT for goods and services, and that causes more demand, and more hiring. Amazing how that happens.

We’ve been hearing this whine for a long time from the Right.

And under rational and normal circumstances, it might just have some validity.

Of course it doesn’t have any validity today and everybody who bothers to be alive knows that.

Why?

Because Mitch McConnell will prevent any budget bill offered by the Democrats from reaching the floor of the Senate for actual debate.

He will filibuster.

He promised he wouldn’t do that.

He lied.

What’s new?

Forgive me if I’m not suitably impressed.

Rob Portman was against it before he was for it.

Seems his personal situation, impressed him enough to consider a change of mind.

Now, I’m glad that Portman has seen the light. I really am.

But as I said, forgive me if it’s just a bit too self-serving.

As a few have said, perhaps it would help if Portman woke up with a poor son, or a senior son. Maybe then he would be in favor of SNAP, and Pell grants, and Medicare, and well, you get the idea.

His hopes of being nominated are shall we say, in trouble?

It’s a glorious day here, with the high going into the mid 80’s. Sun is shining. Time to get busy in the yard with clean up. Diego is a messy boy. He has pieces of wood and bits of things he’s torn up scattered everywhere. To day nothing of poo. Saturday is poo clean up day.

I’m cooking my corned beef today in a slow-cooker kinda way, bathed in beer. I made a couple of loaves of soda bread. I made a white cake that I will trim with green lime frosting. Tomorrow when I get home from church I can make the colcannon. It’s a St. Paddy’s Day kinda meal!

I’m having a bizarre discussion on Facebook with a reactionary. I say that because he is a Republican, a small businessman (three employees), and a climate denier.

He’s sure that green energy is a total waste of time. He finds all kinds of bogus “studies” to prove that and that the sun is the culprit in our current environmental woes. He tried to “prove” his case by suggesting that Greenland was named by the Vikings as such because one thousand years ago it was temperate.

That makes as much sense as saying, “hey it’s snowing! So much for global warming!” A tiny investment in some research shows that the Vikings never ventured inland and the coasts of Greenland are always ice-free, and Erik may have named it so precisely to encourage settlement there when he returned to Iceland.

In any event, I find it curious when little guys like this are so enthralled with being in the “club” with the big guys that they don’t realize that while they may be members of the same club, i.e. “business” entrepreneurs, they are waiting tables rather than eating at them. What it boils down to is they don’t want to pay the taxes they perceive come with supporting green technologies, but they are more than happy to continue to pay taxes to subsidize industries like Exxon-Mobile who make BILLIONS in profits every year, and the only part of that they will ever see is as a valet tip.

Meanwhile the Tea Bibbers continue to weigh as an anchor around the neck of the GOP whose rational members are paddling like crazy while the Tea Bibbers continue to punch more holes in the bottom of the boat. They are the sticky paper once touched that you can’t get off your fingers no matter how hard you shake them.

The latest polling suggests that the world for the GOP remains dismal. Nearly 50% of the electorate things they are crazy and useless. The numbers if anything, have gotten worse than they were immediately following the election. Republicans cannot seem to find their way, and when one jumps to the front and announces the “new” pathway, he or she is shot full of arrows from the bottomless quiver of the Tea Faction that wants no truck with RINOs.

As Joe Scarborough put it, the CPAC boys and girls chose not to invite Chris Christie, a governor who enjoys a 74% approval rating in a blue state. His conservative credentials are not in question by rational people. But he had the temerity to act nicely to the President and that is not allowed by the rank and file nuts.

Rubio, who is hungry for a shot at the White House, cut his teabag in half and got on board with some form of immigration reform that leads to citizenship. Well that caused the expected riff. He’s up against the insanity that John McCain ran into out in Arizona–“where’s the damn fence?” and “they come here and get on welfare.” With that kind of mentality, the reactionary Right ain’t going to get on board. Hell they are going to shoot holes in the bow.

Plenty of the truly demented want the sequester to kick in, because they just want to prove that they are in control. They aren’t but they sure have Johnny Boehner by the short hairs. He’s fallen to the dubious task of lying through his bright whites about how black is white and white is chartreuse. Having no clue what the American people want, he continues to spout that he does, and of course people continue to laugh. John is finding that we actually read papers and read magazines and we KNOW how we got to this place, and his dirty fingerprints are all over it.

Republicans can’t bring themselves to stop sucking at Wayne La PeePee Lapierre’s nether regions long enough to read a poll that suggests that over 90% of Americans want strong background checks on all gun purchases. They are all over the place on this one, from the usual “not from my dead cold hands” to “okay, I can handle background checks.”

Similarly, when it comes to gays, the GOP is turning itself inside out. A number of Republicans have broken from the pack and suggested its time to get out of the dark ages and move into the sunshine. That of course is met with derision and out right calls for hanging among the insane wackos. I do not foresee a happy resolution here no matter what is proposed. The wingnuts are firmly stuck in Leviticus, wallowing in their presumed righteousness, all the while munching on pork chops and engaging in usury, things also prohibited by the Almighty in his dealings with the Chosen.

On women, things get no better. The party that insisted that the “war on women” was merely a campaign ploy by desperate Democrats, continue to amass a mountain of dead (women who will never vote Republican) in their non-war. Plenty of states are still doing everything possible to make sure that women’s private goodies are open for inspection by well-meaning (read lecherous) legislators who are so sure women can’t imagine what is in that womb of theirs that they need men to explain it to them. And then putting impossible demands upon abortion providers that cause them to close their doors in dismay. All this while tens of thousands of women lose the only health care they ever had.

And of course who can forget that a goodly group of morons parade around as grown-ups yet are unwilling to pass the Violence Against Women Act because it protects Native women from assault by non-native men. And good grief we aren’t going to protect same-sex men and women against violence by their partner either, because well, that would suggest we really do love them, just not the “act.” And since they really DO hate them, well you can see why that can’t be passed. The bill remains in limbo as the Senate version (with the above) is up for a vote by the unwilling jackasses otherwise known as Tea Bibbers.

Well, as I see it, the GOP has learned nada and is headed for more election troubles. And of course, we haven’t even touched upon the anger Karl has unleashed by his attempt to shut the Tea Bags the hell up! It’s a party for us, and the best show in town.

I finally figured it out. How stupid of me not to have seen it before. Nobody beats their head against a wall forever. The outcome does not change.

It is apparent that the GOP is suffering from a bad case of masochism. I mean a really severe case of it. I mean let me explain it by way of a baby.

Okay, you hold an animal cracker in front of an infant, and they will reach for it. You hold out four animal crackers and they will drop the one and grab for the four. Then hold out one, and they will drop the four and grab for the one. They don’t differentiate because they don’t know the concept of quantity yet.

Now the GOP sorta like this. You dangle a few teabibbers in front of them, and they will drop a legion of regular fiscal conservatives. They can’t seem to get the idea of counting. They give up the vast middle because the fraction dances a jig in front of them and threatens to go (where exactly?).

I think they get a perverse sexual kick out of it. Just a theory mind you. But you explain why they can’t let go of the crazies in favor of a really much larger middle.

The Chinese are busy stealing our intellectual property.

That used to be done by stealth by men and women sneaking into offices and jimming safes and taking pictures of formulas.

Cloak and dagger stuff. Something you could at least applaud for the sheer audacity of it.

Now? It’s all done thousands of miles away by geeky types with lips smeared with pizza sauce and button-down plaid shirts and cheap sneakers.

I am very sure that if you go to that building in Shanghai where the special section of the Chinese army is busy breaking into computers all over our land, that is what you will find.

I think we should shame them. I mean, “hey Chinese government, can’t you think up these things yourself? Are you so pathetic in intellect that you have to steal it? So much for your much touted smarts!”

After all, it worked so well with Japan and South Korea.

It must be something in the rice that makes these folks so wily when it comes to cheating. Or again, it may speak to just how smart they really are.

In any event, we are getting screwed.

The GOP are messing up the immigration thing.

There is no way out for them.

Even if the “calmer” heads in the GOP (stop laughing!) prevail, do you think that the Latino population is going to forget the fight within the party?

When folks are talking about keeping them in guest worker mode forever as a way to insure cheap labor for the “dirty” jobs, well, I think you have already lost the battle no matter what the final outcome.

Perhaps the GOP needs a lesson in “shut the f**k up” when it comes to talking outside of very very closed doors.

It’s that masochism thing again I think.

It is lost on no one, that anything the President proposes, is “dead on arrival”. They actually use those very words.

So if the President proposes some ideas on immigration, they call it “interference” and “political posturing”. If he leaves Congress alone, they call it
“unengaged” and “not leading.”

They also think we are too dumb to catch on.

They always think we don’t see the truth.

But to be fair, when you have been divorced from the truth as long as they have on almost everything, it’s probably pretty hard to know fact from fiction.

And they are still using the old Rovian playbook which states on page one: If you say a thing again and again, sooner or later, it will be taken as true.”

Of course that is only true if you keep a straight face and are talking to a Teabibber. Actually with a Teabibber, you don’t need the straight face. They are so wrapped in their own little alternative reality that the won’t know the difference.

Lord, things are getting wicked in the Vatican.

Now they are talking about a secret study that shows that the Curia is just chock full of backbiting intrigue, jockeying for power, and *gasp* homosexual liaisons.

Sounds like your average government to me.

Sounds like Benedict has buyers remorse.

Sounds like the Catholic Church is in for a very bumpy ride.

I sigh a lot. I’d even consider going back to the Episcopals, but here in my town, there are no liberal Episcopals only the conservative Anglicans.

It’s just about enough to make a person give up organized religion and just steer an independent spiritual ship. I’m sure Jesus gets tired too.

Once upon a time it used to be pretty easy to tell who was crazier.

Kim Dong Un, like his crazy daddy, Kim Jong Il, were just about the craziest of the loons on the globe.

But America does like to be first.

And we have been running that race into the ground lately.

I mean, like I said, it’s darn near impossible to pick a jackass of the week in Amerika any more.

There are people just standing in line for the honor of being named to that lofty pedestal.

A perennial finalist every week is Wayne La Pee Pee Pierre.

But I’m pretty convinced I’m gonna live long enough to see him placed in a lock box and buried. Better yet, he can be chopped up and put in the nose cone of every nuclear device we have. I bet he would like that.

Sir Boehner of Orange is not a man who is cozy with the truth. He, like so many of his cohorts, believe it is a most malleable thing to be twisted and pulled into whatever shape is necessary to feed the agenda they are pushing at any given time.

The Grand Bargain that Boehner continues to claim fell through because the President “changed” the offer at the last minute, is a total lie. In fact Boehner made the deal only to discover that he could not control the crazy element in his own caucus. Because of the Hastert Rule (thou shalt not bring to the floor a bill not already approved by a majority of your party), Boehner knew the deal could only pass with Democratic help. That he was not prepared to do, so he created the myth that the President changed the offer.

Given that time was short and the GOP was threatening to destroy the economy unless they got their way, the President proposed a draconian alternative that would come into play in six months. This was supposed to ensure that a meaningful debate and agreement would ensue to avoid the awfulness of the sequester. The President originally offered a 50/50 deal–there would be a sequester that consisted of half tax increases and half budget cuts. Boehner refused that deal and insisted that all be cuts.

Moreover, at the conclusion of the sequester deal, Boehner bragged to the press and anyone else that would listen that he had gotten “98% of everything he had been asking for” so he declared himself and his Party the winner.

Those are the real facts.

What the GOP continues to miss here, is that we are not so gullible nor so stupid that we don’t know these facts. So, his little attempt to hijack the truth in favor of his new reality only elicits nods and uhuh’s from his own stupid base. The rest of America sees it for the series of lies it is, and of course, realizes that the GOP is still the party that protects corporate interests to the detriment of the rest of us.

No lessons yet learned. The GOP continues to wallow in the mire of lies. It will remain a party that can’t win the big one. It will continue to try to figure out ways to steal elections. It will continue to be the best comedy routine in town.

•

You have heard no doubt that the President is heading to Israel? And when he is there, he’s going to get a Presidential Medal of Distinction. And the Right wing reactionaries are livid. They just cannot understand why the vast majority of us cannot see that this man is a horrid, vile, Commie, Islamic lovin’ Israel hater. I mean they cannot fathom this as it is SO obvious that he has a “visceral hostility toward Israel.”

Their answer is of course that the person giving him the medal, Israeli President Shimon Peres, is just a figurehead, who is not liked by most of the population.

It makes me laugh. And then I read their shock and dismay again, and I laugh a bit louder and longer.

The circus continues.

•

I do so appreciate a Republican who wants to help the poor. Jeff Sessions is ready to do just that. His method? Cut welfare of course. I mean really, it just breeds dependency doesn’t it? At least that’s what Newt said back in the 90’s when he pushed through the welfare reforms that resulted in tens of thousands losing their benefits. (hint: you might find some of these folks among the homeless today.)

Anyway, Sessions is bristling at the idea that the GOP is being called the party of the rich. And in a memorandum, he made it clear that they shouldn’t tie this deep desire to help out our poor by tying it to deficit reduction–that looks bad. Instead cuts in food stamps and such should be tied to helping business get healthy so those jobs become available. As everyone knows giving stuff to the poor just breeds more grabby people. Everyone knows that.

Boy, I feel ever so much better knowing the GOP really has a heart.

•

If you have been wondering why the price of gas has gone up sharply, well, yes you guessed it, you can blame the neo-cons. They pushed sanctions against Iranian oil, making Europe and others refuse to buy any. The neo-cons were sure of course (they always are) that this would not impact American prices.

They were also sure that Saudi Arabia would pick up the slack. (That now seems unlikely).

West Texas oil is selling at $100 a barrel, which is not good either.

All this causes prices to rise (and Iran gets the benefit of that for what oil it does sell).

See, I agree with this. This is not the way to conquer the fear of falling off cliffs. The way to do that is to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM CLIFFS.

No, I’m actually not talking about the so-called fiscal cliff, which we averted and which was nothing but silliness from start to finish played by silly men and women who are being paid to govern and since nobody has a firm grasp as to what that means exactly, they can tiddlywink their way through the year as they spend the far greater part of their time counting the money in their re-election funds.

Or posturing.

Politicians are good at posturing. The Contrarian would call them posers. People who are highly aware that you are looking/listening and therefore are performing in a manner that they think will get your approval. How’s that for my definition. Definitionally speaking it is to present a false front.

Now, actors do this for a living and we applaud them, the better they do it.

Politicians do it because they think we are too stupid to recognize it for what it is.

But since we are addicted to both movies and TV, that would be a very stupid assumption wouldn’t it? We’re rather expert at it. You might say we are connoisseurs of posing.

Frankly, to the experienced eye, politicians are quite lousy at it. Eric Cantor is a case in point. Now Eric ain’t stupid in the true sense of the word. He knew that as to the taxing thingie, the GOP goose had been cooked. He knew that if they didn’t agree with the Senate bill, the GOP was gonna own the ensuing (fill in the blank as to your concept of the “disaster”) leap off the abyss cliff. He knew that. And of course that would have been bad. Now the likes of Steve (If I only had a brain or a heart) King, and Michelle (Marcus is NOT Gay) Bachmann, and lordy our very special boy Louis (I don’t play stupid, I am stupid) Gohmert, these folks are knock down drag it out IQ knuckle draggers of the first order, they really didn’t care, let alone know that. The math was way beyond them in the first place. And in the second place they are, did I just say that? STUPID.

But Eric knew. So he safely waited until the thing had enough votes and then he slips in there all high and mighty and with great glorious moral outrage and registers his NO. So as to impress the Tea People who as we all know are NOT noted for mental acuity of the even tenth order, and as is reported are all embedded with homing devices so they can be found when then wander out of the neighborhood and start undressing in the middle of the street. They EAT UP the Cantor posing.

And I suppose that now Mr. Boehner, who is still scraping the egg off his face, might stop pontificating “Mr. President, it’s time to get serious!” all the while he was sweating a bucket of orange goo because he can’t control the Lipton folks. He needs to also let go of the “everybody knows we have a spending problem.” Be sure that when you hear “everybody knows” what it really means is “everyone should know”, and that actually just a handful of people believe whatever is said after that. This is all John of Orange posing as if his life depended upon it. And maybe it does.

Anyway, there is still Lindsey Graham, my favorite poser of the day. Lindsey poses as a straight man when it’s clear that he is just itching to cross dress in black nylons and corset. In fact, if you peek under his little Brooks Brothers shirt, I bet you can see a bit of lace. Which is way okay with me, being that I kinda always get along with cross dressers and have found all those that I knew over the years to be rather delightful BFF’s. But Lindsey lives in a very SOUTHERN RED STATE, and well, he tries to keep that stuff under wraps, figuratively and any other way.

All the while he’s huffing about how he’s gonna not vote for that debt limit increase without something “serious” being done about “entitlements” which is a stupid word since the stuff they are really talking about are EARNED BENEFITS for the most part. Right in front of him is John of McCain who is not all that “war hero” that he poses as, and actually is one mean old fart. Bet your belly button that Cindy spends her time anywhere he ain’t. John of McCain poses as a Senator, and directs his sidekick and brown-nosing sycophant Lindsey as they get their jollies by stamping their feet and sounding tough.

Then of course the best posers of all is the entire infestation over at Fox Noise. They are double posers which is hard to pull off and I give them credit for doing a pretty good job. They are posing as ideologues posing as journalists. They are neither of course. They don’t believe half the crap that drools from their mouths and the only journalism they know is the smell of a newspaper.

You can tell that because when confronted with their rhetoric having incited someone to actually carry out some awful thing like MURDER (see Dr. George Tiller), they feign utter shock and surprise, given that they can’t believe anyone buys their crock of crocodile poo in the first place.

So that’s all I know about posing–which had nothing to do with sitting on the edge of precipice, which I find STUPID. I find all people who do stupid things like climb tall things without a rope or walking on tiny ropes without a net STUPID, and though I don’t wish anyone ill, if they fall, well, the gene pool is much the better for it I think.

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You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.